


For a Friend

by endlesslyshort



Category: Code Geass
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-04-20 08:32:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4780718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endlesslyshort/pseuds/endlesslyshort
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, it takes a lot for people to shake themselves out of denial. This time, it takes Japan falling to a zombie apocalypse for Lelouch to come to terms with his feelings for Suzaku.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For a Friend

What day was it? Lelouch checked the blood-smeared, crude tally marks he had penned onto the back of his hand. It was the last form of organization and order he had attempted in this Hell. He had always made a point in his life to be one step ahead of the game; he was always advancing, never stuck in the flow with most others. But now, he seemed to be stuck in this average-paced wave-like entity of those who did not need a system as much as he did.

He frowned, noting the normal wear and tear of each day had erased most of the marks he had put there. Well, that was a bust. Though, it was a small gesture towards normalcy, Lelouch knew he would lose track of the days sooner or later.

"It's Wednesday, Lelouch," a warm voice assured him. He glanced up from the back of his hand, violet eyes holding the gaze of forest green ones just a few feet in front of him.

"It's slightly worrying how well you can tell what I'm thinking, Suzaku," Lelouch noted.

"You two have always been that way, though, haven't you, Lelouch?" The man in question looked to his sister, Nunnally, sitting patiently in the wheelchair Suzaku was steering. The past few weeks had been rough, they’d had to abandon a wheelchair when the Outbreak first started, and Suzaku had to carry Nunnally through most of their journey thus far. Much to their luck, however, the three of them located a hospital to loot a new chair from.

Lelouch merely chuckled, and adopted a softer tone when speaking to his sister.

“Yes, I suppose so, Nunnally.” It amazed him how well she had kept positive during this nightmare he could call their time together on the road. Or, what was left of it, at least. He glanced to the cracked pavement beneath his feet. As they progressed on their path, Lelouch couldn’t help but notice the increase in frequency of scattered remains or broken-down cars. This was one of the very few times he was glad Nunnally couldn’t see. He wasn’t sure how she would handle this world as it was now.

“We’re nearing the Shinjuku ghetto. There’s bound to be plenty of them there, so be ready,” Suzaku noted. Lelouch nodded at this, and reached to the gun holster strapped to his leg. For the past few days, the three of them had really only encountered a few stragglers they had to take down. They had always tried to be cautious with using guns, as the creatures were more attracted to sound. Should anything happen to Lelouch and Suzaku; Nunnally would be done for.

Just a week before, they had become overrun by a horde, and Sayoko sacrificed herself to allow the three of them to escape. It made Lelouch cringe to think of how she met her end, but his determination to be certain that Nunnally would not meet that same fate was stronger than his squeamishness.

It was only minutes after Suzaku said this that the brush on the side of the road rustled. Suzaku turned to Lelouch, rolling Nunallly’s wheelchair over to him. The two of them worked like clockwork; a neverending system. Lelouch grasped the handles, righted the direction of the chair, and wheeled Nunnally away from the source of the noise.  before unlocking the safety on his gun and pointing it at the source of the rustling. Nunnally grasped the armrests of her wheelchair, waiting with baited breath for  whatever was there to make itself present. A strangled, gurgling rasp announced an all-too familiar enemy approach. Zombies. Lelouch stiffened, cursing underneath his breath. How many bullets did he even have left? Suzaku took up his baseball bat, tensing in preparation to strike.

Lelouch couldn’t quite pinpoint what hit him first--the poignant stench of rot and decomposition, or the image of a grotesque, bloodied, maggot-ridden face pushing through the brush. It’s gaping jaw and decaying teeth instantly made him think of tombstones; eerily fitting. His hesitation to pull the trigger left Suzaku with the responsibility of bashing the zombie’s face in before it could bite him.

Where that one came, there were certainly more. Three more corpses joined their “dead” companion, festered limbs wildly reaching out to try and tear into Suzaku while he was occupied with killing the first zombie. Finally, with the suspense broken, Lelouch fired. They had to move fast once they finished off this group. The sound of the gun firing would only attract more undead, and Lelouch didn’t plan on any of them becoming zombie fodder.

A cold, dry hand with bone-thin fingers locked onto Lelouch’s arm. How had one snuck up on him so easily? He was supposed to be more observant than that. Could he free himself? The zombie’s strength was jarring, but there was little he could anticipate with this Outbreak. There were no cards up his sleeve; no way to put someone in check. This was all brute strength and the grit of survival, and nothing could be further from Lelouch’s ball game.

“Let go of me!” he snapped, his attempts at wrestling his arm from the zombie’s grip were to no avail. The gun! Shoot it! Logic screamed from within the confines of his panicking mind.

“Lelouch? What’s happening?” Nunnally yelped, distress laced in every corner of her tone. Meanwhile, the zombie’s gaping maw creeped far closer to Lelouch’s arm than he could ever be comfortable with. Hand shaking, he shoved the gun into the zombie’s jaw, and fired. He cringed at the booming gunshot, the feeling of the zombie going limp in his hands a sickening relief.

Lelouch whirled around to face Nunnally, afraid that his struggle with the first zombie had given an opportunity for another to attack her. She was trembling, her dirty fingernails digging into her once-white sleeves. “Lelouch? Suzaku?” she tried again desperately. Lelouch’s stomach dropped into his knees at the sight of her: shoulders tensed and shaking with unbridled terror.

“Nunnally,” he breathed, “It’s fine. I’m okay. Did anything hurt you?” She shook her head rapidly, and questioned,

“I’m okay, but what about Suzaku?” Lelouch’s breath caught in his throat. He hadn’t even thought to check. He always thought Suzaku was capable of anything, him not succeeding in something was a comfort he fooled himself into believing. Turning on his heel, a horrified thought struck him. There were four zombies altogether. He only took care of two, so that meant the other two Suzaku was supposed to be dealing with. Lelouch had only seen him take one down.

Gun ready to fire, his sharp eyes darted from one slain zombie to the next. One, two, three, four, five...wait, five? Only four had come out of the brush. His gut twisted into knots as gripped the cold metal of his pistol. He was right, the gunfire attracted them. Lelouch might as well have rung a dinner bell for them.

“Lelouch, take Nunnally, and get out of here!” Suzaku warned, his baseball bat worn as it smashed into the face of another approaching corpse. Dammit, Lelouch cursed mentally. He had to shoot them, or else Suzaku was going to get overwhelmed. But if he shot again, more would come! He didn’t want to leave him; he couldn’t. Lelouch looked over his shoulder again at Nunnally. If they both died, she was doomed. He looked at Suzaku now. He could  handle himself, right? But could Lelouch protect Nunnally adequately? He didn’t know how many bullets he had left! What was he supposed to do?

He couldn’t panic. Suzaku needed him now. His resolve bolstered, Lelouch fired a bullet directly into the forehead of another zombie. One down. Two more, counting the one Suzaku had hit with his bat.

“Idiot, you think I’m going to leave you behind?!” He snapped. A soft smile graced Suzaku’s face for a brief moment, disappearing just as he turned around to face the zombie approaching from the rear.It raised its arms above its head, prepared to swing down at Suzaku’s face. Muddied, cracked hands collided with bat’s wooden barrel, an improvised shield. Both hands on either end of the bat, Suzaku pressed  his weight towards the creature, desperately hoping he had enough strength left to at least push him further away.

A few feet behind him, the zombie he’d just beaten was crawling towards him, legs bent and crippled from Suzaku’s wrath. Lelouch froze, realization dawning on him that if the zombie bit Suzaku, there’d be nothing left he, or anyone else could do. He’d become a starving, savage animal.

_I don’t want that. Not Suzaku. He has to live!_

Lelouch pulled the trigger, wincing in anticipation of the thundering gunshot. There was a soft ‘click’, and then several more as his trigger finger pressed more frantically. No, no, no. Not now. He scrambled to examine the magazine, praying to a God he didn’t believe in that there was one bullet left. Just one. The magazine was barren, not a single bullet in sight. He was...panicking. Lelouch Lamperouge was panicking, and his chances of helping Suzaku were getting slimmer as each second ticked by.

What could he do? Was he really strong enough to kill one of them without a weapon? Even Suzaku needed a baseball bat. And if he got bit in the process? He didn’t want to become a deranged, blood-thirsty monster, either. Though, with his plan with defeat Britannia, there wasn’t that much of a fine line between that and what he could’ve become; what he was going to be before the Outbreak. There had to be sacrifices, though, right? That was his plan all along, he’d have to do things that didn’t suit any morals he knew of. He had to strategize. The entire world was his chessboard, and that meant he had pawns. Lelouch was prepared to use people and throw them away.

If this was a chessboard, and his knight was about to be slain, it was obvious what he had to do. Sacrificing the king is an automatic lose, but maybe...maybe right now, maybe it’s not about winning. In this Hell, there’s no real rhyme or reason to anything. It’s death, and blood, and people acting like savages. Would it make a difference if he sacrificed the king to save the knight and the queen?

Lelouch tossed the gun aside, and shouted, “Suzaku, look out behind you!” Suzaku glanced over his shoulder just as knotty hands fastened onto his ankle with the grip of a vice. He stumbled, the suddenness of contact throwing him off balance. The weight of the zombie came crashing down on him, bat tumbling out of his hands.  Before he even hit the ground, and the remnants of the monster grabbing at his ankles, the standing zombie released a hideous, gravelly snarl and unhinged it’s gaping maw.

In a split second, Lelouch, a large shard of glass in hand, ran the zombie through it’s chest at the exact same time it’s teeth clamped down on Suzaku’s shoulder, and tore into it like a wolf would a rabbit. Suzaku let out a blood-curdling scream, and kicked his legs wildly. Partially due to the pain, but also because of the second zombie scrambling to get a bite out of his ankle. Lelouch’s blood froze, and instinct took over. He yanked the shard from the zombie’s back and locked his arm around the back of it’s neck, trying as hard as he could to at least tire the zombie out so Suzaku could recover. If that. Just so he could do something.  

Suzaku freed his leg and scrambled to get back on his feet, the writhing zombie snapping its jaw aimlessly at thin air; hands swiping and pawing with the same pointlessness. With his hand cradling his bitten shoulder, Suzaku slammed his heel into the corpse's head, crushing it after three heavy stomps.

"Lelouch, get away from it!" he exclaimed, picking up the bat again. Lelouch, legs shaking, nodded and released the struggling zombie. Suzaku smashed the bat into the zombies' face, swinging until it's head was little more than a bloody pulp. Suzaku's face scrunched up in pain from working his injured shoulder.

Lelouch's arms hung limply at his sides. Suzaku had been bit, and he had just been standing there, fucking around with the gun like an idiot. Why hadn't he done something sooner?  Suzaku was his best friend, he should've made his decision immediately. Suzaku had risked everything for him and Nunnally. Lelouch was the one constantly gambling, and here Suzaku ended up paying the price.

“Suzaku,” he whispered, “I...it’s all my fault. I should’ve tried to find more bullets, I should’ve...should’ve done something…” Lelouch stared at the torn skin, bloodied and crude with flesh remnants covering meager parts of Suzaku’s injury.

“There’s nothing you could’ve done.” Suzaku forced a carefree shrug, as if he was dismissing Lelouch for apologizing for accidentally stepping on his toe. “I guess...it’s just my time.” He smiled sadly at Lelouch, and only fueled the latter’s frustration.

“You idiot! How can you just let this go so easily? It wasn’t like I spilled something on you. You were bit! Do you understand me?!” Lelouch snapped, anguish seeping into his voice like ink bleeding onto paper. “There’s no cure! And now, we’re...we’re going to lose you. I’m going to lose you.” The words were bitter on his tongue. Suzaku’s posture slackened as he listened to Lelouch. His eyes flitted to Nunnally, her lip quivering as tears trickled down her dirt-smeared cheeks. At least she wouldn’t see him become one of them.

“Lelouch,” Suzaku breathed, the knowledge that this would be the last time he saw him get frustrated sinking further in. “I’m sorry. I don’t want this to happen, either, but...I don’t know what I can do. There’s nothing. I’m dying.” Lelouch grit his teeth, fingernails digging crescent imprints into his palms. It was going to happen sooner rather than later. He’d become sick, pale with fever and eyes red and puffy. His skin would get flakier and chafe, he would vomit blood and get weaker and weaker by the day. He’d drag himself through hell only to become a monster. A blood-thirsty, flesh-hungry zombie with no instinct other than to kill.

“Don’t you dare stand there and apologize to me while you’re dying, Suzaku. Don’t you dare.” His threat was empty, distraught the only fuel behind his words. Lelouch gnawed his lower lip.  He racked his mind for any possible solution--a way to stave off the disease, a prevention, something. _There has to be **something**_ , desperation screamed. But logic had no response.

Suzaku lifted his gaze to Lelouch, eyes brimming with tears.

“You know what I’m going to ask you, don’t you, Lelouch? It’s a lot to ask, I know, but I...I don’t want to be one of them.” Lelouch took a step back, mouth agape, words failing him for a few moments. He didn’t want Suzaku to die, but now there was no alternative. He could either die here, in the way he wants, or become a zombie and rely on some stranger on the road to come and kill him.

Finding the courage, Lelouch looked Suzaku in the eyes. Oh, God, he didn’t want to do this. Every fiber of his being rebelled at the thought but he had  to. As desperately as he wanted to be selfish, to keep Suzaku alive and by his side until the last, bitter moment, he knew better. He knew there had come to a time where he’d have to be selfless, but he never wanted this. He never imagined this would be the price to pay off his sins: to kill the person he loved for all this time. But he couldn’t hurt Suzaku like that and force him to live.

“Why me?” Lelouch asked, trying to prolong the moment before it came as much as he could. He didn’t want to think that he’d have to watch the light leave Suzaku’s eyes. He didn’t want to think he’d have to watch his body go limp. He didn’t want to think he’d have to hold Nunnally while she wept and he forced back his own sorrows. He didn’t want to think he’d have to find a place to bury Suzaku where no one would disturb him. He didn’t want any of this.

“Because I’d do the same thing for you,” Suzaku said with certainty. Their eyes locked, and Lelouch knew exactly what he was trying to say. But Suzaku didn’t need to say it out loud. Lelouch already knew, and a part of him knew for a long time now. _I love you._

“You’re right. You would. And I’ll do that for you now.” _I love you, too._

Lelouch picked up the shard of glass he’d wielded to attempt to end the zombie before, and slowly walked toward Suzaku. He raised the shard above his head, arm trembling as a tear rolled down his cheek. “Look away from me,” he begged, “I can’t do it when you look at me like that. I can’t.” Suzaku nodded solemnly, and closed the distance between himself and Lelouch. He brushed a fleeting peck over his lips, and lowered his forehead to rest on Lelouch’s shoulder. The shard swung down, connecting with the back of his head. Eyes closed, Suzaku accepted death peacefully from the lover he never got to have. Lelouch ended him swiftly, and with the regret that they never had a chance.

 


End file.
